MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — If you have a vote-by-mail ballot to return, you should now return it in-person to your supervisor of elections’ office, any early voting site or at an official drop box location. With less than a week before the election, that's a better way to guarantee your ballot arrives in time to be counted than mailing it back at this point. You can also vote in-person early or on Election Day if you no longer want to vote by mail.
The 10 Tampa Bay Vote Squad reached out to all 10 Tampa Bay supervisors to find out whether you need to bring that vote-by-mail ballot with you if you choose to vote in-person.
These nine counties say you do not need to bring it with you. You show up, they issue you a new ballot and you vote.
- Citrus
- Hardee
- Hernando
- Highlands
- Hillsborough
- Pasco
- Pinellas
- Polk
- Sarasota
They confirm that you have not already voted your vote-by-mail ballot.
Highlands County Supervisor of Elections office prefers you bring it so they can cancel it. It’s not necessary.
The Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office also asks voters to bring the ballot with them; but if you do not, you will be issued a new ballot.
Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett says if you do not have it in hand, you will be asked to vote a provisional ballot.
State law says if election workers cannot determine the status of your vote-by-mail ballot, you can vote a provisional ballot.
The provisional ballot envelope will be opened, and your ballot counted at the next canvassing board meeting when the office confirms you have not voted already.
“I'm asking them to get their vote by mail ballot, even if they want to come to the precinct, but have it in their hand, have it as an insurance policy,” Bennett said.
“They can come into the precinct, turn in that ballot, get issued a new ballot and vote it and it won’t be provisional. However, if they forget it, and they don't have it, we have to have them vote a provisional because we want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to vote, nobody gets a chance to vote twice,” he said.
Bennett says all 67 supervisors of elections in Florida follow the law, but their procedures can be different. In this case, he says this is what works best for his operation and voters in Manatee County.
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